Well hello there. Thanks for coming. Welcome to Hammer the Backlog, the weekly mini painting, accountability and productivity blog run by me, Mick. In this update we are going to look at the last 52 weeks of the year 2022/2023 and start planning for next year, 2023/2024. Please, take my hand and join me as we look back on the year that was and experience something akin to the joy of a childhood Christmas in the middle of June.
YEAR 1 REVIEW
So the main targets of year 1 were well and truly achieved! What a relief! As a reminder, or for new readers coming for the first time, at Hammer the Backlog I break my enormous pile of shame down into targets for a year. I then break those targets down into quarters of thirteen weeks. Each quarter I have enough models that I spend 11 or 12 out of the 13 weeks painting, with a little left over for holidays, bits and bobs and/or the unexpected! That usually amounts to about 50 – 65 man sized models per quarter, fewer if they are big models like cavalry or monsters or detailed models like army generals or wizards.
The two painting targets for year one were:
Get the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th Edition Starter Set painted, photographed and online.
Get Blackstone Fortress and all of its expansions painted, photographed and online.
By using the SMART methodology I was able to break these two targets down into four quarters, roughly like this.
Quarter 1: Bretonnians.
Quarter 2: Lizardmen.
Quarter 3: Blackstone Fortress and first 2 expansions.
Quarter 4: Remaining 4 Blackstone Fortress expansions.
In this case SMART meant
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timebound
I am, of course, very happy to say that all of these targets for the year were achieved. Here, have a little gallery of the finished models!
Hammer the Backlog also started year one with a three year plan. In the three year plan I decided that I would have no more unpainted boxed sets by July 16th 2025. The operating system that I am using to manage this project required that I started to define what that would look like, and I imagined that if I were going to achieve it on time I would need to have set up a streamlined process, created a semi permanent painting station and have a semi permanent photography and storage solution. In quarter 4 of year one I made significant strides on this by converting my grotty, spider-infested old garage into a brand new, modern storage solution and spider-infested painting studio. While it is not quite finished, it is very much on its way to making the next few years much easier!
Here! Have a gallery!
COSTS
One of the founding tenets of Hammer the Backlog was to stop buying new minis when I have so many waiting to be painted. The way I like to explain it is that every broken mini, every sprue languishing unassembled in a box, every blister pack in the darkness at the bottom of a pile, every single one of them at the time that I bought them, seemed to be the coolest thing in the world. With that I mind, I made the decision not to buy any more new minis.
This I did not stick to. I did buy quite a few new minis this year. I was mostly able to justify them to myself by buying models that completed units, replaced broken parts or put the finishing touch on armies. But I did have a couple of moments of weakness too and just bought cool stuff. It’s not all doom and gloom though. The minis I did buy, like this new in box set of 1996 Grail Knights that I grabbed for €20, brought great joy and didn’t end up in the pile of shame! Furthermore, your honour, the new models that I did acquire represent about ten percent or less of what I actually painted.
That is not to say that Hammer the Backlog is a cheap hobby. Including replacement models, paints, brushes, shipping of parts, books, magazines, glue, sprays etc, in the first year of Hammer the Backlog I spent a grand total of €1,100.06. Have a look at the Profit and Loss here if you are interested.
This doesn’t, of course, include the costs of the large and rather expensive garage conversion. Since the garage conversion is really a home improvement project (and probably adds value to the home) that came out of a different budget and doesn’t count!
BITS AND BOBS
Of course, the main targets weren’t the only things I painted this year. My good mate Andy from Mediocre Hobbies sent me the classic Green Knight as a reward for painting up my Bretonnians and my other good mate Emiel from Thanquol’s Lair sent me a classic lizardmen command group as a reward for getting my first year in the bag. One of my main rules of Hammer the Backlog is that gifts get to jump the queue, so I painted those models up at the first chance. Look! A gallery!
Hammer the Backlog’s unpaid intern Fiona also contributed to clearing some of the backlog by mostly painting these really old school monopose plastic dwarves. I helped, but not much!
I also managed to get half a unit of Wood Elf archers, an ancient chaos warrior and a single mithril miniatures barrow wight painted.
MODEL OF THE YEAR
My two favourite models of the year have two very different stories.
My runner up is this Grail Knight. I adore him. Seeing him for sale with his two mates, brand new in box, for €20 on a local ads site just twenty minutes away from my house, bundling into the car with the unpaid intern and my lovely lady friend and rushing across the city at 8pm on a Sunday evening to get them was one of the biggest rushes I’ve ever got out of this hobby. I based his colour scheme on the city of Valencia, where I went on holiday last year and had a wonderful time, and painted him almost to the very best of my abilities.
But my favourite model of the year has a much more tragic story. I saw this Chaos Dwarf Bull centaur on instagram, painted by the very talented Styggosaurus, thought it was a beautiful paint job on a classic mini and went on with my life.
But something called me back and I couldn’t stop looking at it. It took a while for it to dawn on me that it wasn’t a classic model, but it was in fact a brand new, modern, 3D printed sculpt by a creator called Fabelzel. To say I was in love is an understatement. A few weeks later, I am now a 3D printing hobbyist, all because of these two creators.
So I painted him up, flagrantly, in as close to Styggosaurus’ colour scheme as I could. And I could not have been happier with the result. Maybe my favourite single model of all time? It even caused me to ask for a 3D printer and curing station for Christmas, sign up to Fabelzel’s patreon and print out a little starter force to go with him, adding substantially to the pile of shame.
But I thought this was a tale of tragedy? Well, dear readers, sadly it is. This model, through no fault of its own, has been dropped six times by four separate people and one cat. There is no need to name names here (Taylor Swift, the cat, not the international recording artist), but each time he was dropped his axe got shorter as I had to repair it and his hat got more avant garde. While 3D printing is an awesome hobby and the models that it produces are incredible, they are significantly more delicate than modern plastics or metal. After 5 repairs, I just did not have it in me to try to fix it again, so he languishes, still waiting for purpose, in the Chaos Dwarf army box.
SOCIAL MEDIA
One of the unexpected surprises of Hammer the Backlog year 1 was just how much it resonated with people online. The blog itself is easily the most read thing I’ve ever written and the instagram took off like a rocket, growing by 1,000 followers a quarter when I was painting classic warhammer fantasy stuff.
https://www.instagram.com/hammer_the_backlog/
Social media growth did slow down, not unexpectedly, when I started painting 40k stuff instead of fantasy. Still to this day my fantasy posts get many multiples of the likes and follows of the 40k stuff. We finished year 1 with 2,800 instagram followers. 5,000 seems like a reasonable hope for year 2.
In the meantime, check out the Youtube version of this year 1 review.
YEAR 2 TARGET SETTING
So with year one a roaring success, let’s take a look at the pile of shame as it stands.
Box Sets:
Blackstone Fortress including all expansions
Deathwatch Overkill
Blood Bowl 3rd Edition
Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th Edition
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Vengeance
Warhammer 40,000 Assault on Black Reach
Small Projects:
About 1000 points of 2000’s era Chaos Marines
Small force of Gondor for Lord of the Rings
Small modern Dark Eldar Force
Strip and repaint about 50 Dogs of War models
*New* 3D printed Chaos Dwarf Starter Force
Big Stupid Projects that should never have got off the ground:
About 3000 points of 8th Edition High Elves, including doubles of the Isle of Blood set
About 3000 points of 8th Edition Empire, based around units from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book
Warhammer 40,000 Conquest Magazine, full armies of Ultramarines and Death Guard currently painted to about week 30
So, what do we target for year 2? There are a couple of considerations to take into account. The first is that the targets need to be SMART. This is the most important thing, whatever we pick we will come back to SMART and run a check to make sure it works.
The next thing is to remember that three year goal of having no more unpainted boxed sets. Looking at, for example, the 8th Edition High Elves, that could easily be a whole year’s target on its own. It wouldn’t get me any closer to having all of the box sets complete however.
The other consideration is variety. One of the most enjoyable things about year one was having the colourful whimsey of 5th edition warhammer and the grim dark blackstone fortress mixed in together. I’d like to recreate that a little bit this year with roughly 50/50 40k and Fantasy.
With all of that in mind, I decided that the goals for year 2 are:
Dark Vengeance painted, photographed and online
Blood Bowl 3rd edition starter set painted, photographed and online
Dogs of War starter army painted, photographed and online
3D printed Chaos Dwarf starter army painted, photographed and online
I also like to have some non painting, or meta, targets each year. In the case of year two, I would really like to actually play some Warhammer for the first time in my life. With that being the case, why not record the process and have some fun doing it? That’s why the meta target for the year will be:
“Learn to Play 5th Edition” battle report series played, filmed, edited and online
Before we go any further, let’s take a look at our SMART system for one of the yearly targets.
Blood Bowl 3rd edition starter set painted, photographed and online
Is it specific? Yes, the starter set orcs and humans are clearly defined and we need to have them fully painted and shared online.
Is it measurable? Yes! There are 12 Humans and 12 Orcs. They need to be painted and photographed and blogged about.
Is it achievable? 24 models over the course of the year? Easy, although the time on the other boxed sets has to be taken into consideration too, as well as having other things going on in my life! Speaking of, check out my podcast!
Is it relevant? If we are going to get rid of the backlog of unfinished boxed sets, the only way to do it is by painting unfinished boxed sets. We pass this one with flying colours.
Is it time bound? If we just said ‘Blood Bowl painted, photographed and online’, I might get it done by Christmas 2027. However, all of these targets have the completion date of by June 13th 2024.
Going through all of my models to make the annual review was one of the absolute highlights of the year for me. It was like 10 Christmases all at once. The complete change of mindset that the Hammer the Backlog process has brought me, from feeling anxious about how much space the unused models were taking up, being worried about things being broken and neglected and looking at the pile of shame with genuine shame, to having everything proudly on display and being excited about starting a new year has been amazing.
If you have been reading along for the last year, or even if this is your first blog post, I’d love for you to join me on the journey.
How big is your pile of shame? If you got organised and SMART how long would it take you to get through it? What did you buy all those years ago, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world, only for it to end up unloved under a pile of cushions? Why not follow along with me this year, either by joining in in the comments below, or, even better tagging your own weekly updates on Instagram with #hammerthebacklog
Anyway, thanks for sticking around so long for this update. See you all next week for week 1 or quarter 1 all over again!
Best eggs!
Hammer the Backlog 
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